Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad

Infobox War Faction
name=Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad
(Group of Monotheism and Jihad)
war=the Iraq War


caption=Jama'at al-Tawhid wal Jihad members with the group's banner in the background, shortly before beheading the civilian hostage Jack Hensley (below) on September 21, 2004
deletable image-caption
active=Early 2003 to late 2004
leaders=Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
clans=
headquarters=Fallujah
area=Iraq, limited in Jordan
strength=
partof=
previous=Ansar al-Islam (associate)
next=Al-Qaeda in Iraq
opponents=Multinational force in Iraq,
Iraq (Iraqi security forces, Kurdish and Shia militias),
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,
United Nations
battles=Iraqi insurgency

Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad ( _ar. جماعة التوحيد والجهاد, Group of Monotheism and Jihad) was a radical neo-Khawarij takfiri Muslim militant group in the Sunni Iraqi insurgency led by the Jordanian national Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Foreign fighters were widely thought to play a key role in the decentralized network,cite news
date=May 14 2004
url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0514/p03s01-usfp.html
author=Peter Grier, Faye Bowers
publisher=Christian Science Monitor
title=Iraq's bin Laden? Zarqawi's rise
accessdate=2007-07-13] although some analysts say it may have also had a considerable Iraqi membership.cite news
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4268904.stm
date= August 15 2006
publisher=BBC
title=Guide: Armed groups in Iraq
accessdate=2007-07-13] Following Zarqawi's October 17, 2004 pledge of allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, the group gradually became popularly known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (official name "Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn").cite news
title=Zarqawi pledges allegiance to Osama
url=http://www.dawn.com/2004/10/18/top7.htm
date= October 18 2004
publisher=Dawn
accessdate=2007-07-13] cite news
url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6268680/
publisher=MSNBC
title=Al-Zarqawi group vows allegiance to bin Laden
date= October 18 2004
accessdate=2007-07-13] cite web
url=http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=400&issue_id=3179&article_id=2369020
title=Zarqawi's pledge of allegiance to al-Qaeda
author=Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, translated by Jeffrey Pool
date= October 18 2004
publisher=Jamestown Foundation
accessdate=July 13
accessyear=2007] cite web
title=Unraveling Zarqawi's al-Qaeda connection
author=Gordon Corera
url=http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=400&issue_id=3179&article_id=2369021
publisher=Jamestown Foundation
date=December 16 2004
accessdate=July 13
accessyear=2007]

Name

This group's name is usually abbreviated as JTJ or most often shortened to Tawhid and Jihad, Tawhid wal-Jihad and sometimes Tawhid al-Jihad(or just Al Tawhid or Tawhid).

Origins

Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad was started by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, other foreigners, and local, mostly Kurdish Islamist sympathizers. Zarqawi was a Jordanian who had traveled to Afghanistan to fight in the Soviet-Afghan War, but had arrived after the departure of the Soviet troops; instead he busied himself with reporting on the fighting of others. After a trip home, he eventually returned to Afghanistan, running an Islamic militant training camp near Herat in Afghanistan. Zarqawi started the network originally with a focus on overthrowing the Jordanian kingdom, which he considered to be un-Islamic in the fundamentalist sense. Eventually, Zarqawi developed a large number of contacts and affiliates in several countries. His network may have been involved in the late 1999 plot to bomb the Millennium celebrations in the U.S. and Jordan.

Following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, it is believed that Zarqawi moved westward into Iraq, where he may have received medical treatment in Baghdad for an injured leg. It is believed that he developed extensive ties in Iraq with "Ansar al-Islam" ("Partisans of Islam"), a Kurdish Islamist militant group that was based in the extreme northeast of the country. Ansar had alleged ties to Iraqi Intelligence; Saddam Hussein's motivation would have been to use Ansar as a surrogate force to repress the secular Kurds who wanted a "free Kurdistan".cite web
url=http://www.ciss.ca/Comment_EnemyofMyEnemy.pdf
publisher=The Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies
title=The Enemy of My Enemy: The odd link between Ansar al-Islam, Iraq and Iran
accessdate=July 13
accessyear=2007
format=PDF] (In January 2003 Ansar's founder, Mullah Krekar, has staunchly denied any such contacts with Saddam's regime.cite news
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2713749.stm
publisher=BBC
title=Mullah denies Iraq al-Qaeda link
date= January 31 2003
author=Pam O'Toole
accessdate=2007-07-13] )Zarqawi's operatives have been responsible for the assassination of the U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley in Jordan in 2002.cite web
url=http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2004/37130.htm
author=Richard Boucher
publisher=United States Department of State
date=October 15, 2004
title=Foreign Terrorist Organization: Designation of Jama'at al-Tawhid wa'al-Jihad and Aliases
accessdate=July 13
accessyear=2007]

Following the 2003 U.S-led invasion of Iraq, JTJ was developed as a militant network composed of foreign fighters and remnants of Ansar al-Islam to resist the coalition occupation forces and their Iraqi allies. In May 2004 JTJ joined forces with another Islamist organisation, the "Salafiah al-Mujahidiah".cite news
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3677658.stm
publisher=BBC
date= October 8, 2004
title=Profile: Tawhid and Jihad group
accessdate=2007-07-13] Many of foreign fighters were not the group members, but once in Iraq they became dependent on Zarqawi's local contacts.cite web
title=Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi: A biographical sketch
author=Gary Gambill
url=http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=400&&issue_id=3179
publisher=Jamestown Foundation
date=December 16 2004
accessdate=July 13
accessyear=2007]

Goals

The stated goals of JTJ were to force a withdrawal of U.S-led forces from Iraq, topple the Iraqi interim government and assassinate collaborators with the "occupation," marginalize the Shiite Muslim population and defeat its militias, and to subsequently establish a pure Islamic state. Presumably, if and when those goals are achieved, the global Jihad would continue to establish a pan-Islamic state and remove Western influence from the Muslim world.

Tactics

JTJ differed from other Iraqi insurgent groups considerably in its tactics. Rather than just using conventional weapons and guerrilla tactics, it has relied heavily on suicide bombings, mostly with vehicles, targeting a wide variety of groups but most especially Iraqi Security Forces and those facilitating the occupation. U.S and coalition forces, the United Nations (UN), foreign civilians, humanitarian organizations, Iraqi Shia and Kurdish political and religious figures, Iraqi police and security forces, and Iraqi interim officials have also been targeted. The group have assassinated several leading Iraqi politicians of the early post-Saddam era.

Zarqawi's militants have been known to use a wide variety of other tactics, however, including targeted assassinations and kidnappings, the planting of improvised explosive devices, mortar attacks, and beginning in a late June 2004 offensive urban guerilla-style attacks using rocket-propelled grenades and small arms. TWJ was also known for committing war crimes such as the brutal beheadings of foreign and Iraqi civilian hostages, which were then distributed on the Internet in video footage attributed to the group.

JTJ cites various texts from the Qur'an and the Sunnah (traditions) of Muhammad that they perceive to support their tactics. They refer to the tradition of the prophet Muhammad where he said to the people of Mecca when conquering them, "By the one in whose hand the soul of Muhammad is in, I came to you with slaughter" narrated in the books of Hadith (traditions). They also quote Muhammad saying, "Whoever slaughters a non-Muslim (at war with Islam, i.e. those perceived to be 'enemy occupiers') sincerely for the sake of Allah, Allah will make hellfire prohibited upon him." as well as many verses of the Qur'an calling Muslims to fight invading non-Muslims and even behead them, such where Allah says in the Qur'an, "when you meet the non-Muslim (enemies in battle) strike their necks." The group's spiritual advisor was Abu Anas al-Shami.

Activities

Attacks

Canal Hotel after TWJ attack

TWJ took responsibility or was blamed for some of the biggest early insurgent attacks, including:

* August 7 2003: Jordanian embassy bombing in Baghdad which killed 17 and injured at least 40.
* August 19 2003: Canal Hotel bombing that killed Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 22 others at the UN headquarters in Baghdad. More than 100 were injured.
* August 29 2003: Imam Ali Mosque bombing in Najaf that killed Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and more than 85 others. More than 500 were injured.cite news
title=Zarqawi kin reportedly bombed shrine in Iraq
author=Mohamad Bazzi
date=February 7, 2005
url=http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wozarq0208,0,4101449.story?coll=ny-worldnews-toputility
publisher=Newsday
accessdate=2007-07-13]
* November 12, 2003: The truck bombing in Nasiriyah which killed 17 Italian paramilitary policemen and 10 civilians and injured at least 100.
* March 2 2004: Series of bombings in Baghdad and Karbala that killed some 178 people and wounded at least 500 during the Day of Ashura.cite web
url=http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=2400
title=Zarqawi's 'Total War' on Iraqi Shiites Exposes a Divide among Sunni Jihadists
author=Emily Hunt
date=November 15, 2005
accessdate=July 13
accessyear=2007]
* April 19 2004: Failed plot to explode chemical bombs in Amman, Jordan, said to be financed by Zarqawi's network.cite news
url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/18/opinion/main618114.shtml
title=Who Is Abu Zarqawi?
date=May 18 2004
publisher=CBS News
accessdate=2007-07-13]
* April 24 2004: In a statement published by on the Muntada al-Ansar Islamist web site, Zarqawi took responsibility for suicide boat bombings of the oil pumping stations in the Persian Gulf.
* May 18 2004: Car bomb assassination of Iraqi Governing Council president Ezzedine Salim in Baghdad.cite news
url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198661,00.html
title=Fast facts about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
date= June 8, 2006
publisher=Fox News
accessdate=2007-07-13]
* June 18 2004: The suicide car bombing in Baghdad that killed 35 civilians, and wounded 145.cite news
url=http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/06/17/iraq.main/index.html
title=Car bomb kills 35 in Baghdad
date=June 17 2004
publisher=CNN
accessdate=2007-07-13]
*September 14 2004: Car bomb killed 47 and injured nearly 100 more civilians and police recruits on Haifa Street in Baghdad.cite news
publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation
title=Car bomb kills dozens in Baghdad
author=Peter Cave
date=September 14 2004
url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200409/s1199052.htm]
accessdate=2007-07-13]

TWJ claimed credit for a number of attacks targeting Coalition and Iraqi forces, including the October 2004 massacre of 49 unarmed Iraqi National Guard recruits, and humanitarian aid agency targets such as the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.cite web
url=http://www.tkb.org/MorePatterns.jsp?countryCd=IZ&year=2004
title=Iraq: 2004 overview
publisher=The Knowledge Base
accessdate=July 13
accessyear=2007] The group conducted numerous attacks against U.S. military personnel and Iraqi infrastructure throughout 2004, including suicide attacks inside the Green Zone perimeter in Baghdad.cite web
url=http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2005/65275.htm
publisher=United States Department of State
date=April 28, 2006
title=Country Reports on Terrorism
accessdate=July 13
accessyear=2007]

Foreign hostages

*Nick Berg, American civilian beheaded on May 7 2004
*Murat Yuce, Turkish civilian shot dead on August 2 2004
*Kim Sun-il, South Korean civilian executed on June 22 2004
*Georgi Lazov and Ivaylo Kepov, Bulgarian civilians beheaded on July 8 2004.cite news
url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-08/03/content_357131.htm
title=Turkish hostage shot to death in Iraq
date=August 3 2004
publisher=China Daily
accessdate=2007-07-13]
*Durmus Kumdereli, Turkish civilian beheaded on September 13 2004.
*Eugene Armstrong, American civilian beheaded on September 20 2004
*Jack Hensley, American civilian beheaded on September 21 2004
*Kenneth Bigley, British civilian beheaded on October 7 2004

Legacy

Since October 2004 JTJ became known as al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The group may also been linked with the little-known group called "Tawhid and Jihad in Syria", and may have influenced the extremist Palestinian group called "Tawhid and Jihad Brigades" (better known as Army of Islam) in Gaza.cite news
url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/28/africa/ME-GEN-Syria-Al-Qaida.php
title=Al-Qaida inspired militant group calls on Syrians to kill country's president
publisher=International Herald Tribune
date=May 28 2007
accessdate=2007-07-13] cite news
url=http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-world.asp?parentid=67903
title=PALESTINE: Reporter is dead, claims terror group
publisher=Asia Media
date= April 17, 2007
accessdate=2007-07-13]

ee also

*Abu Ayyub al-Masri
*Abu Omar al-Kurdi
*Terrorism in Iraq

References

External links

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1309256,00.html Brutal kidnappers gaining in popularity] The Guardian on September 21 2004
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3677658.stm Profile: Tawhid and Jihad group] BBC News on October 8 2004
* [http://www.cpa-iraq.org/transcripts/20040212_zarqawi_full.html Purported Zarqawi letter] Coalition Provisional Authority